ABOUT ITALIAN DESIGN

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BRIEF HISTORY OF ITALIAN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE SECOND WORLD WAR

Generally speaking in the second half of the 19th
century Italy was in late in the field of industrial
development. One of the most important manifestations
concerning the relationship between industry, applied arts
and architecture was the International Turin Exposition in
1902, where we could recognise the great Art Nouveau's
triumph; this was the first chance for a world-wide
comparison between Italian industrial tradition and the
other big international countries', especially the European
powers. It was an extremely successful exposition with
great influence on Italian industrial design and on its
specificity. It was in this period that furniture design
came to life (design of fanciful furniture conceived by
authors like Duilio Ciambellotti, Ernesto Basile and the
Bugatti brothers). It was the time of luxury industry,
that's to say fancy objects industry, including Florentine
Richard Ginori porcelaine (whose art director from 1929 was
Gio Ponti). Other examples could be Salviati's and Venini's
glasses (wich fixed the great Murano's tradition).
Obviously Italian liberty came to life thanks to the huge
Italian atistic tradition; smiths, glass craftsmen, cabinet
makers, carvers, potters took nature as an example for
buildings, furniture, pots, glasses and lamps'
decoration.

The vanguard movement that more influenced the idea of
an aesthetic revolution of the world was Futurism; it was
closely related to fascism and its 'spiritual leaders' were
Tommaso Marinetti and Umberto Boccioni. Even if futurist
objects didn't never exit from craft dimension, the
revolutionary power of their idea kept intact.
It was near to and anticipated the Bauhaus movement,
too.

Italy knew an intense industrial design development
during the first world war, from 1910 to 1920 which were
decisive years mainly for car, plane and general mechanical
industry. War is a really important component for industry
organization because of its faculty to become serial, so it
was possible to apply to it the industrial design's
principles.
The following step was the organization of a new group of
young people which looked at the European rationalist
movement (called Italian rationalism) whose point of
departure and centre of interest was architecture. In
1930's their work was very important and significant and
their experiences were promoted by the "Triennale" di
Milano where we could find the most significant
confrontations between Italy and Europe; they were always
more interested in furniture and interior planning.
Rationalist movement also came out as a battle against the
existing antidemocratic dictatorship. In 1933 lots of the
leaving prototype created (designed by Albini,Bottoni,
Figini, Pollini, Lingeri, Terragni) were inspired by the
standardisation concept rended through new industrial
materials like securit glass, buxus, linoleum, steel, even
if fascist regime architecture remained the predomininating
and most modern one in Italy during the period between the
two world wars, so the most representative personality of
the period was Giuseppe Terragni whose best creation was
the 'casa del fascio' in Como whose furniture suggested
again the Bauhaus' language (simple geometric forms and the
employment of materials that gave the idea of transparency
and lightness). In Terragni, simple geometric forms and
confort joined together and this was one of the most
evident Italian rationalism's signs.
Fascism accomplished a remarkable propagandistic effort and
young Italian rationalist architects put it to use, but
their vanguard work was in contrast with a market modern
objects demand lack; so, talking about rationalist
furniture, it is correct to say that it was at a
sperimental stage yet.

Actually the project's culture knew great growth between
1920's and 1930's thanks to trade journals engaged in a
modern living concept. The most important were "Domus"
(founded in 1928 by Giņ Ponti) and "Casabella" (originally
called "La casa bella"). This second review became the
Modernism's official voice thanks to Giuseppe Pagano and
Edoardo Persico's articles. During these years the
"Triennale di Milano" came to life (the first four editions
- from 1923 to 1940 - took place in Monza); it took place
inside the Giovanni Muzio's masterpiece building and it was
the biggest opportunity to show new project's ideas.

During this first stage Italian designers choose to
uniform their style to the international style, afterward
Italian originality became worldwide famous and
recognizable mainly in research and home prototypes
fulfillment. Rationalists created refined objects and
furniture which were craftmade products anticipating real
"industrial design". The most interesting personalities in
this stage were Giņ Ponti, Mario Asnago, Claudio Vender,
Franco Albini, Piero Bottoni and the above-mentioned
Giuseppe Terragni. Pietro Chiesa is another standing out
figure in that time; he projected in collaboration with Giņ
Ponti a rich set of technically and formally innovative
lighting devices as the "luminator" (1936). It was the
first indirect light lamp, that's to say a lamp created by
upwards reflection, never conceived in Italy before.

Automobilistic industry is among big off the shelf
productions the first to follow an international model,
Fiat company in particular made use of craftsmen knowledge
to give propulsion to the automobil's evolution. So the
typical winning Italian model came to life just in 1930's
fusing aesthetic/aerodynamic research and mass production.
There were Fiat cars as popular models, Lancia cars
addressed to wealthy customers, Alfa Romeo cars for speed
lovers and extraordinary exclusive cars designed by
Pininfarina. We should mention some storic models like Fiat
Balilla and Fiat Topolino (economy cars of the first
period) and Fiat 500 and 600 (economy cars of the second
period). Dante Giocosa won in 1959 the Compasso d'Oro prize
for his 500 project and this was a really rare case in
automobile history. Fiat 500 is nowadays a collectible
piece and it has been reshaped so many times during the
last forty years.
Vespa Piaggio was another revolutionary novelty in
automovil design field; it was designed by Corradino
d'Ascanio and constructed for the first time in 1945 by
Enrico Piaggio. It was an absolute novelty bacause of its
innovative framework nowadays extant. Among its innovative
features we could find enclosed engine studied to avoid
clothings damages, comfortable driver position (the most
confortable as possible), easily replaceable tires, it was
simple to park and to get on. During the last fifty years
the market has known more than one hundred Vespa models.
At the same time the Innocenti company made the 'lambretta'
(designed by Cesare Pallavicino). Vespa and Lambretta are
two important pieces of Italian history and they keep at be
a people heart's piece.

Radio was one of the most remarkable post war period's
objects of design. It had been tested during war time and
now used as unique mass communication medium (radio
broadcasting), turning from luxury object into mass
product; it was an extremely interesting object for
rationalist architects. Franco Albini created between 1938
and 1940 a hi-tech ante litteram excellent example.

In a rising but not completed production process yet,
Olivetti company took a leading role in the field of
industrial design in a wide range of employment from
advertising to building trade.

FROM THE SECOND WORLD WAR TO PRESENT TIME

During the second world war a big part of the Italian
construction legacy had been destroyed, so it was important
to find new ideas to reconstruct the country: this was an
interesting challenge for designers and architects who were
called to renew Italian dwelling places in a technical and
functional way. Some companies carried out interesting
sperimental works; these were Feal company creating steel
fittings, Olivari company creating door handles and Bticino
company creating electric power control devices. In 1950's
also the new modern furniture companies obtained
extraordinary findings, particularly stackable kitchens
industry and home appliances industries. This last
mentioned Italian industry became in a few time the second
world-wide exporter after United States, with objects
created by Alberto Rosselli, Marco Zanuso, Achille
Castiglioni, Piergiacomo Castiglioni and Gino Valle (he
cooperated for a long time with Rex-Zanussi company).
In 1950's industrial objects became a symbol of this new
renaissance period; Italy suddenly found out that modernity
means welfare, comfort and a best type quality of life. So
next to home appliances we could find furniture, lamps, a
vaste range of objects for home and free time, radio sets
and television sets that gave life to a typical 50's gay
image.
In the same years the new furniture's shapes for serial
industrial production had an important role. Young
rationalist architects could finally put in practice their
training knowledge. Some important names of the period to
mention are Franco Albini, Ignazio Gardella, Luigi Caccia
Dominioni, Vico Magistretti, Ettore Sottsass, Marco Zanuso,
Achille and Piergiacomo Castiglioni and the BBPR group
(Banfi, Belgiojoso, Peressutti, Rogers).

The Italian design excitement and sperimentation found
its peak in 60's, when a great number of ordinary objects
were produced. There was a rapidly increasing national and
international market demand, people usually bought objects
more for their names then for their real worth. In these
years other designers had a big importance: Mario Bellini,
Vico Magistretti, Gae Aulenti, Angelo Mangiarotti, Enzo
Mari, Rodolfo Bonetto, Marco Zanuso.
Massimo and Lella Vignelli made great success in the United
States as representatives of the purer Italian design.

In the second half of the 70's the 'post-modern', or
'neo-modern' became the most significant movement in Italy.
The new phenomenon emerged thanks to vanguard designers
(Branzi, Deganello, De Lucchi, Sottsass) and above all
thanks to Alchimia group (founded in 1976 by Alessandro
Guerriero) and Memphis group producing unusual objects
which didn't belong to any tendency. The style was
extremely provokative and kitsch and it became in a few
time the guiding style of the new Italian design.

Instruments for Italian design promotion were the
Compasso d'oro prize, exhibitions like the Triennale and
the new Salone del Mobile in Milan and the big
objects-manifests like Italian ocean liner laying up for
United States.